Doctor Who: The Third Doctor Adventures, Volume 8
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Average rating4
15
Ratings1
Average rating4
8.1 Conspiracy in Space by Alan Barnes
When the TARDIS is diverted to Draconia, the Doctor and Jo fall foul of the hawkish Lady Zinn. War with Earth seems imminent. The Draconian military are on high alert and rumours of a super-weapon are rife.
Execution, assassination, intrigue and a mysterious faction known only as ‘The Eyes’ are all part of a deadly mission the Doctor and Jo have no choice but to accept. But as they fight to survive, the peace of the entire galaxy hangs in the balance.
8.2 The Devil's Hoofprints by Robert Valentine
Long ago, in Devon in 1855, a mysterious event occurred. Overnight, during a terrible blizzard, thousands of hoofprints appeared in the snow. The tracks led on for miles... and no-one ever identified who or what caused them.
Many years later, the Doctor, Sarah and the Brigadier have come to Devon themselves, to visit a controversial scientific establishment in the wake of a mysterious death and rumours of strange occurrences in the vicinity.
But things are just about to get much, much stranger. Because they’re about to uncover the origins of the Devil’s Hoofprints... but is this one mystery that should have remained unsolved?
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9 primary booksThe Third Doctor Adventures is a 9-book series with 9 primary works first released in 2015 with contributions by Justin Richards, Andy Lane, and 11 others.
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Two more stories, one in space, and one featuring UNIT. They feature different companions but both manage to evoke the era, with the ‘70s style incidental music, as usual, adding to the ambience.
Conspiracy in Space – The first story features Jo Grant and is a sequel of sorts to Frontier in Space, being set on Draconia a few years before the latter story. An interesting aspect of this is that almost all of the guest characters in the story are themselves Draconian – something that would be unlikely to work on live-action TV. But it does give quite an opportunity to explore Draconian culture from the inside and do an alien-based story that ties into wider Doctor Who lore without being The Web Planet.
As the title suggests, the story is about court intrigue and a conspiracy within some of the highest echelons of Draconian society. The result is rather “James Bond with space-samurai”, riffing off another trope of the show in this era, as well as providing links to both Frontier and Colony in Space. Part of the Bond feel comes from the frequent use of space-parachutes, as well as a villainous threat to use a doomsday weapon. At times, some of the physical nature of this doesn't entirely make sense and if Barnes grasps the true scale and nature of interstellar space, he certainly isn't letting it get in the way of the story. (For a key element to work, Earth and Draconia would have to be in the same solar system, which clearly, they aren't).
If you don't let that get in the way, though, it's a fun romp with double-crossing villains, honourable and dishonourable aliens and a good use, and expansion, of the general setting. A notable feature is how many of the senior Draconians are female, which gives a better variety than we would expect from Frontier in Space – an apparent contradiction addressed in the closing coda, but a definite plus in this story. 4 stars.
The Devil's Hoofprints – While the second story starts out in the UNIT era, as is common with these collections, most of it takes place in 1855, where the Doctor runs into the eponymous footprints – an actual piece of local folklore that is here given a science fiction explanation. This time, he is accompanied by Sarah Jane; the Brigadier also features but has relatively little interaction with the other leads after the first 30 minutes.
Sarah Jane is perhaps less associated with the UNIT era than Jo or Liz, but she still belongs and fits right in here, at least in those segments set in the present day. Otherwise, she's strong and independent, as she was in this era. That's slightly offset by her being held hostage by the villains at one point, Jo Grant style, but even then she is given more agency than her predecessor often was on the TV show.
My problem with this story is that it's often difficult to work out what's going on, with plenty of action scenes, some involving the Doctor and Venusian aikido, but a larger number with the Brigadier. Since the latter is on his own, aside from the villain, we don't have the usual stand-in of somebody explaining what's just happened out loud and, honestly, I just have no idea in places. Otherwise, it's a decent story, using some of the tropes of the era, even if the historical setting was only rarely used during it (although, obviously, that includes The Time Warrior, so Sarah Jane is an obvious fit). 3 stars.
